Perspectives on the beautiful game of soccer; fueled by enormous amounts of coffee

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

More ballot help!

I asked for and received a lot of input for my MLS All-Star Ballot and it did make a difference in my final selection.

So now, I've decided to again get some help from the readers here for another ballot I've been asked to fill out.

The Honda Player of the Year ballots went out on Tuesday and I received mine. The first thing I thought was "holy crap, already" but then after realizing the U.S. won't play another game this year where the results will matter, I thought it made sense. Then, I knew I wanted to put it up here to get some thoughts from our trusty readers.

How it works is a player must have played in at least three games to garner consideration. Unfortunately, that rules out Eddie Gaven so you Gaven/Crew supporters needn't worry about him.

Then, I've got to select a 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place finisher. A first place vote is 3 points, a second place vote is worth 2 and a third place vote is 1 point. The player with the most points wins.The criteria is pretty simple. According to the official release: "The award recognizes the best player on the U.S. national team who has played in at least 3 games during the calendar year."

So my mind is wide open. Okay, well, I've got some players in mind and I've already eliminated some (sorry, Sacha; as much as I like you personally...) so now I leave it in your hands to help me select my ballot.

Donovan has played well through most of the games we've had this year. He's been better this year than he has the last few years. He'd be a worthy selection.

I'd also say that Clark could be a good second choice, since he's been one of our constantly sturdy players over the Gold Cup and Copa. Similarly, Feilhaber could be a good third choice (or Timmy, for that matter).